


There's A Little Resemblance

by rindomness



Series: The (Mis)Adventures of Sam Reese [10]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Transcendence (Gravity Falls), Ayala POV, Dungeons Dungeons and More Dungeons, Gen, Movie Nights, Pines Shenanigans, Sam Arc, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 20:40:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28926669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rindomness/pseuds/rindomness
Summary: Ayala's been hanging around more with Sam, Silver, and Alcor more since she accidentally discovered that Tyrone Birch was actually Alcor the Dreambender. But there's something... weird about Alcor. Beyond the demon thing, of course. Wonder what it is.
Relationships: Ayala Pines & Alcor the Dreambender, Ayala Pines & Sam Reese, Ayala Pines & Silver Wills
Series: The (Mis)Adventures of Sam Reese [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1985777
Comments: 5
Kudos: 38





	There's A Little Resemblance

**Author's Note:**

> So Ayala P.O.V. was giving me a hard time but I think I've got it now. Yay! Enjoy! 
> 
> I would also like to thank [aba_daba_do](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aba_daba_do/pseuds/aba_daba_do) for helping me brainstorm for this fic! This was super fun to write, if I'm being honest. ^-^

It was a couple weeks after the Yggdrasil incident when Ayala started to get suspicious. 

She had really started thinking after a Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons session. Ayala was hanging back after Sazi and Devon had left, and Alcor was floating over the couch beside Sam, who was working on an assignment for a class. Silver and Ayala were still sitting at the table, finishing a joint project.

“So what’s it like living in a house that old?”

Ayala looked up from where she was gluing a header to their board. “What?”

“The Library’s older than the Transcendence, right?”

“The Library? No, but pretty close relative to now.”

Silver set down their cup. “Oh?”

“Uh… yeah, the actual building had to be… rebuilt, I believe, in… oh boy, mid-two-thousands I think.” She leaned back in her chair. 

“What? What happened?”

“No one… really knows? It just… kinda disappeared one night and then they had to rebuild. At least, that’s the story back home.”

“Why haven’t I heard about this?”

“Probably because there wasn’t a whole lot of reporting on it, from what I’ve looked into. Which is weird, even for Gravity Falls, but… it was still pretty early on. You would have had to dig a good while to find anything.”

“So no one knows what happened?” 

“Walked away,” Alcor spoke up from across the room, and Ayala jumped. No matter how many times she hung out here with him, she couldn’t seem to entirely get used to Alcor. Sure, he was neat and all, but he was… a little weird around her. Maybe he was just like that all the time. She still felt like she was being constantly watched. She had brought it up to Sam at one point, and she had shrugged. 

“You’ll kinda get used to it. That’s just… kind of something he does.” 

It had been weeks, and she still hadn’t entirely gotten used to it. Not to mention, things like what he just said. 

“What do you mean, walked away?”

“The Sh- er, Library. Walked away.” He coughed, and Ayala continued to stare. “I mean, it could have happened, right?”

The policing his words around her was odd, too. Sam couldn’t really explain that one to her particularly well, she had found out. He didn’t do that so much with her, apparently. 

“I mean, it could have? It seems… that feels a little out there, but I guess?”

Alcor just stared at her for a few moments too long, and then nodded.

“It could have, yeah.”

He said it with a kind of confidence that suggested that he knew more than he was letting on. Which really shouldn’t have been surprising to Ayala, he was Alcor after all, but it still felt off. Something was telling her to pay attention. 

“Anyway, the point is, the house had to be rebuilt. Honestly, the weirdest part of moving here had been not having all of my cousins running around like the gremlins that they are. I love them, but  _ wow _ do they have energy. They have so much energy.” 

“So, little kids not running around causing chaos is the new thing, huh?” Sam spoke up. 

“Yeah, pretty much. Also, like, you don’t have to turn on the sink to drip whenever it gets cold to prevent the pipes from freezing here.” 

The conversation moved on from there, but even when Ayala got home that night, she couldn’t stop thinking about Alcor’s latest weird comment. 

She started to think.

* * *

The next time Ayala thought Alcor was acting especially strange around her would have had to be movie night, if Ayala had to pick one. At some point, Sam had started inviting her over for movie night every once in a while. Usually, these were times to just hang out. Someone picked out a movie on a rotating cycle. Alcor would complain about details every now and then, which prompted Sam to tell him to be quiet. Ayala would try to bring snacks, often cherries or cherry pastries. 

That week, the movie in question had been an action remake of an old, late-nineteen-hundreds cartoon. Alcor had been nitpicking the treatment of the characters the whole time, and Sam was getting close to her snapping point. Ayala could tell, considering that Sam was sitting right next to her, shifting every time Alcor made some muttered comment from the other side of the couch. 

“Alcor,” Sam paused the movie after the latest comment. “Could you please shut up for the rest of the movie?”

Ayala glanced between the two of them. No matter how many times Sam said stuff like that, Ayala always sort of expected to Snap. Realistically, Ayala didn’t really expect him to hurt Sam, but… he was still a demon, and a famously unpredictable one at that. 

If there was a breaking point for how many times Sam could tell Alcor to shut up without facing consequences, this wasn’t it. 

“...I can complain after, though, right?”

“Yeah, sure, I just can’t  _ hear _ the movie.”

“Alright.”

“Thank you.”

Sam unpaused the movie, and Alcor didn’t make disparaging comments for the rest of it. There were a few moments where it seemed to be a close call, though. Luckily, there wasn’t a whole lot more time left in the movie.

The credits started to roll, and Alcor groaned, floating upside-down over the edge of the couch. His hat was squished against the floor, but somehow still floating over his head. 

“What was that?” He asked. 

“Flower Power Gals,” Sam informed him, unnecessarily. 

“I meant the ending, Sam.”

“Are you mad that Daisy-”

“Yes, I’m mad that Daisy died! What was that about?”

“Self-sacrifice?”

“If anyone would have gone for self-sacrifice it would have been Petal!”

“Petal was busy-”

“Holding a door! “ Alcor threw his hands out to the TV. “They didn’t need to hold the door!”

“Violet-”

“Could have shot through the door! Also, the romance subplot-”

“Okay, yeah, the romance subplot was stupid. Who was in charge of writing that?”

Ayala mostly tuned out the rest of the post-movie griping, taking empty cups and the popcorn bowl and setting them by the sink.

“You went into this knowing it was a shitty remake, why is it such a big deal, anyway?” Sam was saying as Ayala returned. 

“Flower Power Gals is very important to me, Sam.”

“Oh?”

“It was very important to me when I was younger.”

“How much younger?”

“A lot younger. The point, Sam, is that this is an insult to my childhood. Even  _ Stan _ would have been disappointed in this, and he  _ loved _ this kind of stuff!” 

“I didn’t know demons had childhoods,” Ayala cut in.

“Relative childhood,” Alcor added quickly. “When uh- when the Transcendence happened.” 

“Ah.” 

“So technically when you were born?” Silver asked. 

“Ah- yeah, technically,” Alcor rubbed at the back of his neck. “The point is that this is blasphemy and slander against the good name of the Flower Power Gals.”

“I see.” Sam was smirking. “Didn’t you know how the movie ended anyway?”

“Yes, but it’s still disappointing!” 

“Aren’t you picking next time, Alcor?” Ayala asked, interrupting the oncoming recycling of the argument. Alcor paused, thoughtful. Then, a show smile crept across his face.

“You’re right. Thank you, Ayala.”

Ayala almost felt worried. Almost. That is, until she remembered that the last time Alcor had picked, they watched Princess Sparklewand versus the Galaxy and he sobbed through the quite obvious fake-out death scene. 

It probably wouldn’t actually be a problem, then.

“Uh… you’re welcome?”

That night, Ayala had gone home considering the conversation about Alcor’s childhood. Things were starting to click together. 

* * *

The time that Ayala really started to seriously consider her hunch was after the Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons session a week later. She was telling Silver more about the Library, and the topic of family stories had come up. 

“We’ve got some wacky ones,” Ayala said, leaning back against the couch.

“Like what?” 

“Hmm…” Ayala searched her memory for something which wasn’t blatantly illegal. “Well, we have the Smile Dip story.”

“Smile Dip?”

Sam looked up from her laptop. “Isn’t Smile Dip that candy from Europe that’s banned commercially here?”

“...Yes.”

“So what’s the Smile Dip story?”

“Well,” Ayala started. “This was, supposedly, within the first hundred years after the Transcendence. Probably closer to the early end of that, too. Anyway, this story involves four people. My great-times-a-lot grandmother, her siblings, and - allegedly - their uncle.”

“Why allegedly?”

“The story I was told claims that the uncle’s name was Dipper, which… is a little problematic because he’s… kind of dead by the time this story supposedly happens.”

Sam made a choking noise. Ayala and Silver looked to her in concern. 

“You good there, Sam?”

“Yep,” she said. “Just- just swallowed wrong. Continue,” she set her laptop on the table and shut it. 

“Okay… right. Anyway, the story goes that Dipper had been on a trip of some kind, and had come back with this candy.”

Silver nodded. Ayala noticed Alcor returning from a summons out of the corner of her eye.

“So, these three kids got curious. What is this strange candy that their mother won’t let them touch? So, they ask Dipper about it.” 

“Wait, what’s happening?” Alcor asked.

“Ayala’s telling one of her family’s stories,” Sam said. “Also, wasn’t it banned for-”

“Slight hallucinogenic properties? Yes,” Ayala fought back laughter. “So, anyway, these kids go and ask their uncle if he’ll let them try the candy. And,” Ayala couldn’t keep back the snicker that escaped. “He gave it to them.”

“Oh?”

Sam was grinning, and Silver was looking on in wide-eyed anticipation. 

“According to the story, and keep in mind that this story may not have even happened due to the question of the uncle’s existence, the kids’ parents supposedly got home to a  _ wrecked _ house and three wacky kids who were under the influence of hallucinogens.”

Sam was losing it, trying to catch her breath laughing. Silver was staring, open-mouthed. 

“And,” Ayala added, grinning, “If, somehow, this story was true, that means that this adult, who  _ must _ have known why this was a bad idea, still made this- this genius decision.” 

“Oh my- oh my god,” Sam managed to choke out between laughter. “That’s- that’s  _ wild- _ ”

“Oooooh yes. Dipper is a recurring character in these stories, too. I'm not sure how many of them even have a basis in reality for that reason, but a lot of those stories serve as almost cautionary tales. A lot of the time, they have Dipper doing things which… people generally aren’t able to.” 

“Like what?”

Ayala thought for a moment.

“Well, there’s the tree, though that’s not really much of a cautionary story…”

“The tree?”

“Alright. So, at home we’ve got this giant apple tree. This thing is  _ giant, _ and old, and it’s got a bit of a feel to it. It doesn’t feel like a normal apple tree.”

“How so?” 

“I… I don’t know if I can really explain it. It just… it feels different.” 

Ayala could feel Alcor’s eyes on her again. She tried to shake off the eerie feeling it was giving her and continue with the story. 

“The point being, we’ve got this story about this apple tree. First, relevant parties. We have Mabel Pines, Dipper, and Mabel’s husband Henry. Henry passed on, apparently, before Dipper did, at least according to the story. The story goes that when Henry died, Dipper took a part of him - the story doesn’t specify and my guess is either it got lost over time or the story’s just something we tell and it didn’t actually happen - and buried it in the backyard. This part grew into an apple tree, and is a sort of… home base for a spirit that lives in the woods. Sometimes, when you look out the window when it’s dark, you see something big moving around in the trees. A shine of the moon on metal. Things like that.”

The room was silent for a moment. Silent and still enough that when Alcor spoke up, it made everyone jump a little.

“The Woodsman.”

“What?” Ayala asked after she had recovered. 

“It’s called the Woodsman.” He almost sounded… Ayala would have pinpointed that as sad. 

The room went quiet again, everyone looking at Alcor. 

“...I have a summons. I’ll be back. Later.” 

With that, Alcor disappeared.

* * *

Ayala didn’t try to test her theory for a few more weeks. Nothing quite as shocking happened, but there were a number of little incidents, now that Ayala was looking for them. Almost calling places the wrong name was a pretty common one, Ayala found. He was also ridiculously nostalgic for things from the early two-thousands specifically, and kept making references that flew over everyone else’s head. Ayala had to look most of them up.

Still, she had an idea. An unlikely idea, but… things just lined up a little too nicely for her to just ignore it. 

The fact that she was still going through with her plan was insane, though. Was this what her aunt Ali was talking about with the Pines family reckless streak? It probably was. 

Ayala knocked on the door to the apartment for movie night and waited the few moments until Sam flung it open with a grin. 

“Aya! Hey! Come on in!”

“Hey, Sam,” Ayala said, smiling back and stepping inside. “What’re we watching?”

“Alcor won’t tell me. Says something about revenge.”

That’s right, it had been a while since their last movie night. 

“I see.”

“Hey Ayala!” Silver waved as Ayala stepped inside. Ayala waved back, and took a deep breath. She could do this, as crazy as it was.

“Hey, Silver, what’s up?”

“Waiting for Alcor to finish setting up the movie.” 

“I can’t  _ find _ it,” Alcor grumbled from in front of the TV, arm elbow-deep in his top hat. 

Now was as good a time as any if she was really doing this. 

Was she really doing this?

“What are you looking for, Dipper?” 

It came out mostly steady, as nonchalant as she could pull off, but she still paused before the last word. 

“The Adventures of Pina, it should be in here…” He frowned, sticking his arm further in. 

The room went silent. It took Alcor a few seconds for what just happened to register, and then his head shot up to Ayala. 

“Wait, what did you just call me?”

“...Uhhhh-” she hadn’t actually really expected that to work.  _ She hadn’t expected it to work. _ Why had it worked?! 

Sam was staring at her in awe, and Silver was looking between Alcor and Sam. 

“How did you-”

“I don’t- I was  _ right? _ ”

“No seriously how did you figure that out,” Alcor-  _ Dipper, what the actual fuck-  _ spoke up. 

“...A lot of things that added up in a really weird way,” Ayala eventually got out. 

“Back up,” Silver said from the couch. “Are you telling me Alcor the Dreambender and Dipper Pines are-”

“The same person.” Dipper sighed. 

“So- so wait- that- that changes  _ so much _ -” 

“You cannot just go telling people about this, Silver.”

“Sam, how stupid do you think I am? That could cause so much destruction and chaos. No, I’m not gonna go to class and just tell everyone I know that Alcor is Dipper.”

“Just making sure.” 

“It explains a lot of our family stories, too,” Ayala added. “I hope you know that I was, like, ninety percent sure they made you up.” She looked to Dipper.

“That’s a valid reaction, honestly. I would have thought my parents made me up too if I were in your position. Anyway, I may have to pick a different movie because I can’t find-  _ there it is! _ ”

He pulled his arm out of the hat with an old case in his hand, a grin on his face. “Finally! Mabel  _ loved _ this one. Okay,” he flipped the hat back onto his head, “if anyone needs to grab something first do that and then we’re starting.”

Ayala found that movie night with Dipper wasn’t all that different than movie night with Alcor, except for the additional anecdotes in the middle of the movie. 

It would hit Ayala the next morning just how insane her discovery was. 


End file.
